What Makes The Bush Haters So Mad? First, it was how he got the job. Now it's how much he's doing with it

By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER

Bill Moyers may have his politics, but his deferential demeanor and almost avuncular television style made him the Mr. Rogers of American politics. So when he leaves his neighborhood to go to a "Take Back America" rally and denounces George W. Bush's "government of, by and for the ruling corporate class," leading a "right-wing wrecking crew" engaged in "a deliberate, intentional destruction of the United States way of governing," you know that something is going on.

That something is the unhinging of the Democratic Party. Democrats are seized with a loathing for President Bush  a contempt and disdain giving way to a hatred that is near pathological  unlike any since they had Richard Nixon to kick around. An otherwise reasonable man, Julian Bond of the N.A.A.C.P., speaks of Bush's staffing his Administration with "the Taliban wing of American politics." Harold Meyerson, editor at large of The American Prospect, devotes a 3,000-word article to explaining why Bush is the most dangerous President in all of American history  his only rival being Jefferson Davis.

The puzzle is where this depth of feeling comes from. Bush's manner is not particularly aggressive. He has been involved in no great scandals, Watergate or otherwise. He is, indeed, not the kind of politician who radiates heat. Yet his every word and gesture generate heat  a fury and bitterness that animate the Democratic primary electorate and explain precisely why Howard Dean has had such an explosive rise. More than any other candidate, Dean has understood the depth of this primal anti-Bush feeling and has tapped into it.

Whence the anger? It begins of course with the "stolen" election of 2000 and the perception of Bush's illegitimacy. But that is only half the story. An illegitimate President winning a stolen election would be tolerable if he were just a figurehead, a placeholder, the kind of weak, moderate Republican that Democrats (and indeed many Republicans) thought George Bush would be, judging from his undistinguished record and tepid 2000 campaign. Bush's great crime is that he is the illegitimate President who became consequential  revolutionizing American foreign policy, reshaping economic policy and dominating the political scene ever since his emergence as the post-9/11 war President.

Before that, Bush could be written off as an accident, a transitional figure, a kind of four-year Gerald Ford. And then came 9/11. Bush took charge, declared war, and sent the country into battle twice, each time bringing down enemy regimes with stunning swiftness. In Afghanistan, Bush rode a popular tide; Iraq, however, was a singular act of presidential will.

That will, like it or not, has remade American foreign policy. The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy is the subtitle of a new book by two not very sympathetic scholars, Ivo Daalder and James Lindsay. The book is titled America Unbound. The story of the past two years could just as well be titled Bush Unbound. The President's unilateral assertion of U.S. power has redefined America's role in the world. Here was Bush breaking every liberal idol: the ABM Treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, deference to the U.N., subservience to the "international community." It was an astonishing performance that left the world reeling and the Democrats seething. The pretender had not just seized the throne. He was acting like a king. Nay, an emperor.

On the domestic front, more shock. Democrats understand that the Bush tax cuts make structural changes that will long outlive him. Like the Reagan cuts, they will starve the government of revenue for years to come. Add to that the Patriot Act and its (perceived) assault on fundamental American civil liberties, and Bush the Usurper becomes more than just consequential. He becomes demonic.

The current complaint is that Bush is a deceiver, misleading the country into a war, after which there turned out to be no weapons of mass destruction. But it is hard to credit the deception charge when every intelligence agency on the planet thought Iraq had these weapons and, indeed, when the weapons there still remain unaccounted for. Moreover, this is a post-facto rationale. Sure, the aftermath of the Iraq war has made it easier to frontally attack Bush. But the loathing long predates it. It started in Florida and has been deepening ever since Bush seized the post-9/11 moment to change the direction of the country and make himself a President of note.

Which is why the Democratic candidates are scrambling desperately to out-Dean Dean. Their constituency is seized with a fever, and will nominate whichever candidate feeds it best. Political fevers are a dangerous thing, however. The Democrats last came down with one in 1972--and lost 49 states.

YES! The thing that terrifies the Democrats the most, more than terrorists, more than biweapons, more than nuclear war, more than Hillary's breath, is the possibility that George W. Bush just might get something done.

3
posted on 09/15/2003 8:54:47 PM PDT
by Samwise
(There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil.)

Then, taking a look at other headlines this evening we see that yet another reason the "Bush haters" are so mad is because the Canadian government just betrayed Tokers Internationale with it's first pot sales.

They say it's so bad they want their money back.

Life can be too good ~ as it is under Bush ~ and that's what gets these guys so angry. They are not happy unless their President is involved in personal scandals up to his eyeballs. They actually like to buy their MJ from a stranger under a streetlight in the bad part of town.

It's all one and the same. Now, if we could get them all interested in "too long" bungee jumping.

Let me tell you something else. I am mad as hell with GWB right now. His positions on illegals is stupid, his spending is stupid and I could go on. But I see what he is doing. GWB is pandering to get re-elected.

Watch, when he gets elected for a second term. This will all change. LOOK OUT DEMOCRATS. That has got to scare the hell out of them.

You are so correct. Bush's self-assurance, which comes from his faith, terrifies the left. Their hate rises from their fear. I remember his beautiful speech to Congress after 9/11 when he said fear and freedom are at war. He chose freedom and has been relentless in pursuing it. Inside, that little voice we call our conscience is screaming at his enemies because deep inside they know Bush is right. As always the left rebels against anything that forces them to face their conscience and realize they are living a fraud. This must be torture.

I believe SkyPilot has it right. It's his Christianity that infuriates the Bush-haters. How about Carter? Well, Carter was both sanctimonious and incompetent and was easy to dismiss (- and besides, he appointed liberals to the courts.) Bush is neither sanctimonious nor incompetent, and the genuineness of his Christianity is a threat to those who have bet wrong on Pascal's wager.

The Democrats can't stand closure of a particular issue because it can't be used to hammer the Rebublicans with. I think they have lost so many issues now they have to resort personal attcks and out right lies. .

They Hate you, they hate me too. Worst part is that it boils over into every thing, I did my 8 years in the Military with Bubba, I had my bumper sticker and I was mad, but I didn't Hate the people that liked him, Pity yeah...

20
posted on 09/15/2003 9:12:26 PM PDT
by TexasTransplant
(In 1895 there just two automobiles in Ohio - and they collided)

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